Key Takeaways
- Digitalization unfolds its greatest value not in processes but in the business model.
- Trading time for money has a natural growth limit – digital products remove it.
- The path: productize knowledge, make services scalable, build recurring revenue.
- A keynote opens the view – the best ideas then come from your own team.
The most valuable question I can ask entrepreneurs from the stage is: What do you actually sell – your time or your outcome? Those who hesitate at this question still have their biggest digitalization potential ahead of them.
Why Is Time-for-Money a Growth Brake?
Because the day has 24 hours – even for your best team. Service providers, consultants, firms and agencies grow in this model only through more heads, with all the risks. Digital building blocks break the logic: a good explainer video advises a thousand customers at once, a knowledge base answers questions at 3 a.m., an online product sells while you are with a client.
Which Levers Does Digitalization Offer for the Business Model?
- Productization: packaging recurring consulting services as standard products with a clear price.
- Scalable content: prepare knowledge once, deliver it any number of times – from online course to portal.
- Recurring revenue: turning projects into subscriptions – maintenance, support, knowledge updates.
- Data as early warning system: usage data shows what customers really need – before the competitor sees it.
How Does This Thinking Enter Your Organization?
Not by decree, but by aha moments. In keynotes and strategy workshops I work with examples of companies that made the shift – and with a simple exercise: which of our services would a customer also buy as a product? The answers from the own team are regularly the best of the day.
Which Revenue Models Work Digitally?
Scalability does not come from more hours but from a different revenue model. Four variants regularly work in mid-sized companies:
- Subscription instead of one-off sales: maintenance, service or advice becomes a predictable monthly offering.
- Usage-based pricing: the customer pays for outcome or volume, not for attendance.
- Knowledge as a product: what your experts explain a hundred times is produced once and sold many times.
- Platform role: you broker between customers and partners instead of delivering everything yourself.
The appeal is not the model itself but its repeatability: every additional unit you sell costs you considerably less than the first one.
How Do You Test a Digital Offering in 90 Days?
You do not need a large programme to gain clarity. One quarter is enough if you stay disciplined:
- Weeks 1 to 2: one target group, one problem, one price – written on a single page.
- Weeks 3 to 6: ten conversations with real customers, five of them naming the price.
- Weeks 7 to 10: build a minimal version, if necessary with existing tools instead of custom development.
- Weeks 11 to 12: three paying pilot customers – or a deliberate decision to stop.
Why Do Digital Add-On Businesses Fail?
Almost always for four reasons: there is no responsible person with time. The price is set too low out of fear. Worry about cannibalising the core business slows every decision. And IT is supposed to be perfect before the first customer sees anything. The opposite works better: the paying customer first, perfection later.
Planning an event? As a keynote speaker for artificial intelligence, digitalization and Microsoft 365, I bring technology topics to the stage in a way that sticks – hands-on, entertaining and immediately actionable. Book a digital transformation keynote: content, formats and fee at a glance.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Does this also work for classic industrial companies?
Yes – there the lever is usually service: machine sales become operator models, spare parts warehouses become predictive maintenance. The principle is identical: sell the outcome, not the effort.
How quickly can a business model be extended digitally?
First building blocks – such as a productized consulting package – are market-ready in weeks. The key is starting with a pilot instead of the perfect grand strategy.
Does the digital building block replace the core business?
No, it complements it: the personal service becomes more valuable through scalable offerings – customers start digitally and then book the expertise behind it.
Do we need a separate business unit for this?
Not at the start – but one clearly named person with at least one day per week. Without protected time, day-to-day business always wins.
How large should the initial budget be?
Small enough that failure hurts nobody, large enough that the work is taken seriously. In many mid-sized companies that means a low five-figure sum for the first quarter.
